In the Legislative Assembly last week

After Nunavut’s legislative assembly opened for business last week, MLAs asked the usual questions about patient travel and nursing, and also demanded to know why some expected construction projects are getting put off until future years.

They voted for better airline service, and asked questions about the food mail program.

And as of Nunatsiaq News press-time this week, MLAs in committee of the whole were also poring over the GN’s scaled-down capital budget for 2007-08.

Kattuk blasts GN over Horne lawsuit

Hudson Bay MLA Peter Kattuk told MLAs this past Monday that he’s not happy with how the governments of Nunavut and the Northwest Territories responded to a lawsuit filed by a second group of Ed Horne sexual abuse victims.

The GN and GNWT settled its first lawsuit, in 2002, through an alternative dispute resolution process that did not require litigation in court.

But they responded to the second lawsuit with a statement of defence alleging that Horne’s victims may have consented to having sex with him, and may not have suffered pain, suffering and anguish as a result of the abuse.

“I did not understand how our government could say such a thing,” Kattuk said.

Kattuk said his community, Sanikiluaq, does not understand why the GN is handling the second Ed Horne lawsuit differently than they handled the first one, and that the GN “owes a clear explanation to the community of Sanikiluaq on this issue.”

Horne, a former teacher and principal, is believed to have abused large numbers of Inuit boys in Sanikiluaq, Cape Dorset, Kimmirut, Iqaluit and other communities between about 1971 and 1985.

Another MLA who represents large numbers of Ed Horne victims, Olayuk Akesuk of South Baffin, has so far been silent on the lawsuit issue.

Small hamlets feel left out – again

Because of its growing deficit, the Nunavut government will make two Baffin communities – Qikiqtarjuaq and Sanikiluaq – wait longer for badly needed classroom space.

”We are in a very serious situation with our financial resources and we have to be cognizant of that when we do the capital plan,” Ed Picco, the education minister, told MLAs in committee of the whole last week.

Earlier this year, the GN hoped to fast-track a new school for Sanikiluaq and an addition to the school in Qikiqtarjuaq.

But because of the government’s worsening financial situation, the GN has deferred those projects for several years. For Peter Kattuk, the MLA for Sanikiluaq, where the school is now running at 110 per cent of capacity, this was not welcome news.

“I know that we have been talking about it for a long time now, I guess since 1999 and still, it’s not satisfactory to the community,” Kattuk said.

Picco said that even though the GN has already paid for site work for a new school in Sanikiluaq, and is able to pay $1 million for planning, it can’t find money for construction – which may wait until 2008, and possibly longer.

As for Qikiqtarjuaq, Picco said work on an addition to Inuksuit school won’t likely start up again until 2010-11.

James Arreak, whose Uqqummiut constituency includes Qikiqtarjuaq, isn’t happy either, especially after hearing the GN promise last March that it would fast-track the Inuksuit school project.

“This is the way it goes for the smaller communities, it seems. The bigger communities, whenever there’s an infrastructure that is supposed to be built, they go ahead with them,” Arreak said in committee of the whole.

Okalik “open” to GN takeover of food mail

Premier Paul Okalik told MLAs last week that he’s open to the idea of having the Government of Nunavut run the much-criticized food mail program, which is now run by Canada Post on behalf of the Department of Indian Affairs and Northern Development.

Okalik made the remarks in response to a question from Keith Peterson, the member for Cambridge Bay. Peterson asked Okalik about a Nov. 2 meeting between the premier and Jim Prentice, the DIAND minister.

The day before, Prentice had told the House of Commons standing committee on aboriginal affairs that he has “questions” about how the federal government runs the program and that he’s not opposed to the idea of having the food mail program administered by the Nunavut government.

“There is a public government in Nunavut that perhaps is best able to administer that,” Prentice said Nov. 1.

For his part, Okalik said he too is open to the idea of having Nunavut run the program, as long as Ottawa provides the territorial government with enough money to do the job.

“I advised the minister that we are open to assuming the responsibility provided that the resources follow with the responsibility,” Okalik told Peterson last week.

Last month, Prentice announced a sweeping review of the food mail program. The food mail program is funded out of DIAND’s budget, but is administered by Canada Post, which contracts with airlines to handle and ship perishable food to northern communities.

About 90 per cent of food shipped under the program, which costs Ottawa more than $35 million a year, goes to Nunavut and Nunavik communities.

MLAs vote for better airline service

Nunavut MLAs want the Nunavut government to work with airlines to create an “action plan” for providing small under-served communities with affordable and reliable air services.

MLAs made the request last week, through a motion introduced by Quttiktuq MLA Levi Barnabas, whose High Arctic constituents have complained often, and loudly, about the deteriorating quality of airline service to Arctic Bay, Resolute Bay and Grise Fiord.

“The communities that I represent in the High Arctic have been conveying concerns to me for some time and I have written a number of letters on their behalf to the airlines which serve my communities,” Barnabas said.

The motion does not, however, specify how its stated objectives might be achieved, although Barnabas told MLAs that more federal spending on airport infrastructure would help.

Nursing wounds in the health department

As in past assembly sessions, Health Minister Leona Aglukkaq last week fended off numerous questions on two of the legislative assembly’s favourite obsessions: nurses and medical travel.

Hunter Tootoo, the MLA for Iqaluit Centre, asked Aglukkaq to state why some international nurses are allowed to work at health centres before they pass nursing exams, while graduates of Nunavut’s nursing program must pass the exams first before they can get jobs.

Aglukkaq explained that it’s because Immigration Canada requires that international nurses be guaranteed jobs before they can get visas to enter the country.

She also said the vacancy rate for nurses in Nunavut still stands at about 40 per cent.

Meanwhile, James Arreak, the MLA for Uqqummiut, questioned Aglukkaq about the wisdom of decentralizing the health department’s patient transportation office from Iqaluit to Pangnirtung.

Arreak said that when patients with travel problems call the Pangnirtung office, they often find that no one answers the phone.

And, as some MLAs claimed in the previous session of the assembly, Arreak said patient travel screw-ups increased after the move to Pangnirtung.

Aglukkaq responded by saying that many of those problems involve the patient home in Ottawa, the airlines, and health operations in Iqaluit.

“I think people have made the assumption that all the problems are a direct result of Pangnirtung office providing the service and when, in fact, many of the concerns were not a direct result of the people providing the service in Pangnirtung,” Aglukkaq said.

She said the health department has already fixed the telephone problem in Pang, and is looking at ways of fixing the way patients are given referrals for appointments in the south.

The health department organizes about 17,000 medical travel trips each year for the Baffin region alone, Aglukkaq said.

Education: Let me take you higher

Ed Picco, the education minister, rose in the house last week to brag about the growing numbers of Nunavummiut succeeding at university, including those getting higher-level graduate degrees.

”More Nunavut students are not only graduating from certificate and diploma programs, they’re also graduating with degrees at the bachelor, the masters and indeed, the PhD level,” Picco said.

Picco said in the 2005-06 school year, 11 Nunavut students earned bachelor degrees in science, commerce, nursing and education. Four people earned master’s degrees, in teaching, mechanical engineering, leadership and northern resources, and one person earned a PhD, in educational psychology.

Picco also said the number of people applying for student financial assistance jumped from 812 people in 2002-03 to 1,292 people in 2005-06.

The powder-puff class

Keith Peterson, the MLA for Cambridge Bay, rose in the house last week to heap praise on a new course offered at Killiniq High School: in “cosmetology,” the science of make-up and personal grooming.

”They are learning about skin care, hygiene, pedicures, manicures, facial preparation care and make-up application. Mr. Speaker, also there are two boys on this course, so it’s interesting. They’re taking an interest in that stuff,” Peterson said.

Peterson said the 15-hour course, offered in co-operation with a local business called Inuksuk Enterprises, has attracted 16 to 20 students aged 14 to 18.

“During the after school hours, local residents were taking advantage in signing up for massages, facials, manicures, and pedicures. I’m not sure if anyone has signed up for any waxing jobs,” Peterson said.